Editorials

Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

The dark side of do-gooding

By: Editorial

Posted: 01/8/2010 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

THERE is a dark side to do-gooding that a lot of people simply refuse to see. Save the whales, support aboriginal rights, save the environment, support animal rights -- these are all causes in the news recently in either dark or deceptive or dangerous ways.

The most dramatic confrontation occurred Tuesday in the Antarctic as environmental extremists from Paul Watson's Sea Shepherd group harassed a Japanese whaling vessel. The whaler and Mr. Watson's multimillion-dollar speedboat collided as it attempted to cross the ship's bow. Speed was no match for substance and Mr. Watson's boat is now missing about 10 feet of its bow.

Mr. Watson and his sympathizers around the world are outraged, but the truth is that the Japanese were operating under a licence for scientific whaling from the International Whaling Authority. They were entitled to engage in their business without being harassed by Sea Shepherd which, as Canadians know well from the seal hunt, has a reputation for creating life-threatening protest situations. It is Mr. Watson, not the whalers, who is the bad guy here.

It is a long way from the Antarctic Ocean to Winnipeg, but Sea Shepherd's sob-sister in the animal rights movement, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, recently tried to pull a fast one here by announcing that a Winnipeg hockey arena would be the first in the country to have its centre-ice symbol show a parody of the Vancouver Games official seals. In PETA's version, the logo shows the Olympic seals being bludgeoned to death and the Olympic rings dripping with their blood.

PETA is notorious for shockingly inaccurate images and statements regarding animal rights and no such logo will appear, but it has managed to smear a legitimate Canadian industry and the world's greatest games with one simple misrepresentation that many uninformed sentimentalists will buy.

As the Olympic torch relay wends its way across Canada, it confronts innumerable protests, most peaceful, a few more threatening, even violent, but most Canadians don't know what most of these people are protesting. Protest has become such a way of life, we take it for granted.

But some means of protest are better than Mr. Watson's and PETA's. The Olympics will leave a huge carbon footprint, what with all those planes full of athletes and fans flocking to Whistler. One company is marketing an Olympic pin for $25 to offset that carbon footprint, with the profits going to greening industries. Whether it will be just another sentimental journey remains to be seen, but at least it's not dark, dangerous nor deceptive.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition January 8, 2010 A10

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